Today we had to get up at 2:45 in the morning to join a bus convoy going to Abu Simbel, 280 km South of Aswan. The ride took 3 hours and we arrived shortly before 7 am. Unbelievably, the place was already crowded with tourists! What's basically to see at Abu Simbel is the Great Temple of Ramses II overlooking Lake Nasser, and the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to Ramses favourite wife Nefertari ("Nofretete" in German). The Temple of Ramses contains three statues of gods and Ramses himself that are illuminated by the first rays of the rising sun on February and October 22nd every year. Built between 1274 and 1244 BC, both temples are huge and impressive, even more when you consider the fact that they have been cut into pieces and moved further up in the 1960s, in order not to be lost in the waters of Lake Nasser due to the High Dam construction. More than 2000 blocks of 10 to 40 tons each had to be moved and were reconstructed inside a specially built mountain 210 m away from the water and 65 m higher than the original site. The project cost 40 million US dollars and took a little bit over four years. Altogether, 14 ancient monuments could be saved this way, funded by the Unesco and supporting teams from all around the world. (For example, also the Philae Temple has been moved to another island than the original one; the new island being reshaped as much as possible in order to copy the original site in all details.) Overall, the temples in Abu Simbel were big and nice to see but - to be honest - getting up in the middle of the night, spending 6 hours on a bus, 3 of them in the heat of the desert which can't be managed by the bus' aircon, are in my opinion not worth it.

Back in Aswan around lunch time, I went back to the market with Felicity and Jacinta, another girl of our group. They wanted to get some souvenirs and I felt half relieved, half frustrated that I didn't even have to look since I have no space in my luggage anyway! In the afternoon, some of us decided to go to Kitchener's Island, located in the middle of the Nile right next to Aswan. The island has been turned into a Botanical Garden by Horatio Kitchener, the British Consul General in Egypt in the 1890s. He imported plants from the Far East, India and parts of Africa. The island offers a great view on the sand dunes of the West Bank and Aswan on the East Bank of the Nile. We just went for a walk there and enjoyed a break.

Afterwards, Steve, a guy from New Zealand, and I still went to the Nubian Museum of Aswan. Compared to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo this one is much newer and better equipped in terms of displays and descriptions. It was very interesting and helped to understand some more details about the Nubian history and their "life in exile" today.

At the end of the day we had dinner on a restaurant ship on the Nile, called the "Aswan Moon". I'm almost ashamed to say that I had pizza... I also realised that evening that my knees hurt quite a bit, so I put some ice gel on before going to bed. First time I could use my extensive travel pharmacy! In any case it helped and they were better the next day.